Walking through art

The Oak Park Sculpture Walk for 2018 is in my neighborhood, at least until early September.

I walked over today to see if the sculptures are still there, and they are. This is one of my favorites, "Peggy," in front of our vet's office.

This one, "Uplift," is another favorite.

Happy 90th!

Andy and I drove to Burr Ridge last night to celebrate Andy's Aunt Pat's 90th birthday with a family dinner! Doesn't she look great? She told us she just passed her driver's license renewal test. (L stayed home to do homework).

This cake was huge and delicious - chocolate, banana, strawberries and whipped cream. What more could you want?

Singing "Happy Birthday." We were able to visit with Andy's cousins, one who came in from Maine, the other from Pennsylvania. We also met AJ, his cousin's first grandchild.

They didn't put 90 candles on the cake, but there were a lot!

Amazing monarch transformation

This was our monarch caterpillar yesterday afternoon.

It's hard to see in this picture, but he climbed to the top of the jar and was hanging since last night. We didn't know if it was time to form the chrysalis or it was sick.

And then this afternoon I took a look at the jar and he's forming a chrysalis! So exciting!

And at the bottom of the jar, the caterpillar's skin. If all goes well we should have a beautiful butterfly in 10-14 days.

Hungry caterpillar

Weekend wrap-up

L worked Saturday and Sunday this weekend. This was the "homework" she brought home - a peanut butter cookie, a potato hand pie, a biscuit, lemon poppyseed muffin, citrus chocolate chip muffin and a grape custard pie. The biscuit and pie were my favorites.

L and I drove back to the bakery yesterday afternoon to get a key lime pie for a party we went to that night. It was delicious too.

As we were leaving for the bakery, L spotted a monarch caterpillar on one of our milkweeds. When we got home, we put it in a jar with some milkweed leaves. I read that as long as we give it a new supply of leaves for the next two weeks, it should form a pupa and eventually we'll have a butterfly. I hope so. The last caterpillar we found disappeared. I think the birds might have eaten him.

And here we are at our friend L's house as she sets up her TV for the showing of "America to Me," a 10-part series documentary a year at OPRF. B was a junior when the series was filmed.

Fancy stores

We were at Oakbrook Center buying a birthday present for an upcoming party and couldn't resist going into a few of the stores there.

I might have to put this spatula from Williams-Sonoma on my Christmas list.

Not sure about using "spontaneous" to describe my sign. Maybe "sentimental" would have been a better choice?

And not that I need another purse, but Coach is tempting me with these pretty new color choices.

B's back at school

We had to wait for L to get off work around 10:30 to head to Champaign to drop B off at school. There was no long line of cars like there was last year. We even got a spot in his dorm's parking lot. He was a very light packer. We were able to carry everything to his room in one trip. Hope he enjoys doing laundry.

He's on the third floor of Snyder this year (last year he was on the second floor). And this year he knows his roommate so that should work out well.

We were as surprised as B to see these notices taped on every room door. He's co-president of the dorm's council for the year with one of his friends. He claims the signs were her idea.

E met us at B's dorm so we could treat her to lunch. We went to Hohut Mongolian Grill. It was like Flattop but you can go up to get food as many times as you like. Have to fill those college kids up, you know!

Cooking our lunches.

We stopped at E's apartment and brought in some of the things she wanted from home that she forgot and/or didn't have room for last weekend. I also thought it would be a good idea for B to know where her apartment was, especially if he ever expects to find the car. B was anxious to get back to his dorm to see his friends. I said I had to get one nice shot of him in front of his building before we let him go.

A big hug from L.

And look who drove for a little while (very little) on Interstate 57. She still needs a lot of practice.

E's apartment

E drove to school last weekend and still has some unpacking to do, but her apartment looks nice so far.

She's on Clark Street about a half block from where most of her classes are.

First things first, Andy checks out the wine cooler.

Nice kitchen with a dishwasher, of course. Wish we had one of those when I was in college.

They have a small dining table but there's also two stools at the kitchen counter.

She's still working on setting up her bedroom.

I like the gray walls and the sectional. The apartment is small but it's just E and her roommate.

Repotting

I found a planter on sale at Target today and decided to get it to re-pot the plant in the living room. It's grown quite a bit from when I got it ...

... from mom's funeral. It was rootbound so maybe repotting it will let it grow even larger. Hopefully, I'll get around to separating the plants on the back porch too.

And B's last night at home he requested meatball mostaccioli as his final home-cooked meal. His half has no cheese.

Flavored chips

Things Andy can't pass by when he's in the grocery store. He said the dill pickle ones are pretty good. Haven't tried the pizza ones yet.

Beautiful sunflowers

I saw these huge sunflowers while walking by the neighborhood school's garden today. They're probably 8 feet tall. I would love to grow sunflowers like that. I need to find out what variety they are.

First day of school

L is ready to tackle junior year!

And what a way to start - with a fire alarm set off before 10 a.m.

Cookie homework

L's job sent her home with three of their cookies to try. They want her to eventually taste everything on the menu so she can describe it to customers if they ask.

Afternoon escape

Andy and I went out for a couple hours this afternoon to try the Oak Park Brewing Company. We've driven past so many times and just never took the time to go inside.

I liked the names of their beers. I had the Munich Lager which was slightly hoppy and Andy had the Mary Hoppins.

We wanted to try the food so we had one pork BBQ slider and a hamburger slider. I was hoping they had cheese curds on the appetizer menu, but they didn't.

The decor is very cute. I was surprised to see the Food Channel on the TV though. You don't usually see that in a bar.

Broken

I was in the grocery store the other day, took out my Dollar Store reading glasses and the arm fell off of one side. I looked pretty ridiculous holding them up to my face with the remaining arm as I tried to read price tags. And that's why I stock up on them from the Dollar Store.

E's farewell meal

Tonight was E's last home-cooked meal for a while. She's driving back to U of I tomorrow. She requested her favorite meal, Chicken Rice-a-Roni Casserole.

Chicken Rice-a-Roni Casserole

1 pkg. (5.6 oz.) chicken-flavored Rice-a-Roni
2 c. cubed cooked chicken
1 can (10 ¾ oz.) cream of celery soup, undiluted
½ c. mayonnaise
½ t. Worcestershire sauce
¼ t. pepper
1 c. (4 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese

Cook rice mix according to package. In a bowl, combine chicken, soup, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce and pepper. Stir in rice. Transfer to greased 1 ½-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake, uncovered at 350 F. for 20-25 minutes or until heated through.